The Influence of Puritanism on American Literature Essay Sample free essay sample

The Puritans and PuritanismMost of the early colonists were Puritans. a group of serious. spiritual people who advocated rigorous spiritual and moral rules. * They wanted to sublimate the English Church and to reconstruct church worship to the â€Å"pure and unspotted† status of its earlier yearss. * They opposed the luxuriant rites of the English Church. * They believed that the Bible was the revealed word of God. hence. people should steer their day-to-day behaviour with the Bible. The Puritans brought with them a doctrine of life. which is popularly known as American Puritanism. A dominant factor in American life. Puritanism was one of the most abiding and determining influences in American idea and American literature. Without true apprehension of Puritanism. there would be no existent apprehension of American literature and American civilization. ? °Puritanism had spoken for the distinction of the person. for freedom from oppressive authoritiess. and for the value of ac quisition and instruction. It led Americans to analyze their beliefs. their universe. and each other. It gave ordinary work forces and adult females a sense of intent. It encouraged them to size up issues in faith and in authorities and to talk out. It helped to make in Americans a sense of responsibility to their God. their state. and their fellow work forces. It taught work forces and adult females to labour to be good and to judge others by their lives. non by their birth. At its tallness. Puritanism served as the dominant force in the making of American literature. ? ± ( McMichael. erectile dysfunction. AAL. 11-12 ) American Puritanism is a double cultural heritage. one being spiritual and the other practical. Puritans were hence called â€Å"practical idealist† or â€Å"doctrinaire opportunist† . On the one manus. Puritanism is a extremely rigorous spiritual philosophy. The Puritans were determined to happen a topographic point on the new continent where they could idolize God in the manner they thought true Christians should. When they arrived on the continent. they saw virgin land. virgin woods. huge sweeps of wilderness. and hence believed that they were sent by God for a definite intent. Contending that there is merely one God who regulations everything on the Earth. these Puritans thought they were â€Å"the selected few† . chosen by God to restore a Commonwealth based on the instructions of the Bible. to reconstruct the lost Eden and to construct the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. â€Å"Therefore the journey to the New World was non merely a migration. It was a new Exodus. ordained by God and foretold in the Bible. merely as the Bible promised the creative activity of a New Jerusalem. in America. † ( McMichael. erectile dysfunction. AAL. 8 ) On the other manus. Puritanism besides has its practical facet. When the Puritans foremost landed on the continent. what they were faced with was wildernessno shelter. no nutrient and no apparels. Their battle for endurance and the motion of forcing the frontier with them as they moved further and further westward made them more and more bemused with concern and net incomes. They had to work hard in order to do a life and be ready for any bad lucks and tragic failures that might lie in delay for them. Equally far as this regard is concerned. the Puritans learned a batch from the native Indians who helped them through the terrible winters. The impact of Puritanism on American literature can be summarized into the und ermentioned three classs: * American literature. in a sense. is a literary look of the pious idealism of the Puritan petition. The Puritans dreamed of life under a perfect order and worked with hope and bravery toward constructing a new Garden of Eden. Therefore. they tended to look everything with a large sum of optimism. This went into the plants of Emerson. Thoreau. Whitman. and even James. No admiration at that place appeared a temper of defeat or desperation in later periods. because as the old expression goes. â€Å"always at the latter terminal of weal bases woe† . When the dream did non happen. when a â€Å"Gilded Age† came alternatively of the Golden 1 they dreamed of. how could anyone experience? * The Puritans’ metaphorical manner of perceptual experience brought American literary symbolism into being. To the pious Puritans. the physical universe was religious. nil but a symbol of God. The universe. therefore. was one of multiple significances. This thought was distinguishable in the plants of such early authors as William Bradford. Cotton Mather. Jonathan Edwards and Emerson. In the plants of Hawthorne. Melville and Poe. this developed itself into symbolism. * The Puritan manner of authorship is characterized by simpleness. The Puritans have been â€Å"abhorred for the ir asceticism and rigidness in affairs of taste† . They formed a antipathy for art and for any manifestations of animal beauty. hence. the manner of their authorship was fresh. simple and direst. the rhetoric field and honest. words simple and trim ( non fancy ) . The usage of metaphors was merely to explicate their sentiments instead than to adorn. They wrote non-fictional prose alternatively of novels. They were good at composing history. excessively. and life was one time a popular signifier of literature. Literary SceneAlmost all literatures come from low originsdiaries. diaries. letters. discourses. travel books. etc. So did American literature. In the Colonial Period. personal literature occupied a major place in the literary scene. In contend. they served either God or the enlargement or both. In signifier. they were chiefly the imitations of the English tradition. Some of import authors in this period include: Anne Bradstreet ( 1612-1672 ) . the first noteworthy poet in America whose wordss remained unexcelled by any American adult females authors for 200 old ages until the visual aspect of Emily Dickinson. Her The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America ( 1650 ) was the first published book of poesy written by a colonist in the English settlements. Most of her verse forms were imitative in signifier. Edward Taylor ( c. 1642-1729 ) . a conservative Puritan curate. He wrote in the tradition of metaphysical poets. showing Godhead and elevated thoughts in unrelated. homely footings. His verse form revealed his attempts to obtain brotherhood with God. His manuscripts were discovered in 1930s. Cotton Mather ( 1663-1728 ) . the writer of over 400 plants. His plants were filled with classical allusions and aimed at reinvigorating the declining Puritanism of his twenty-four hours. He was the symbol of Puritan diminution. an emblem of an orthodox doomed to neglect. His representative work was Wonders of the Invisible World. Michael-Guillaume-Jean de Crevec?ur ( 1735-1813 ) . besides known as J. Hector St. John. His Letterss from an American Farmer ( 1782 ) andJourney Into Northern Pennsylvania and the State of New York ( 1801 ) served as major part to the European reading of American society. His essay â€Å"What is an American† became one of the most influential individual studies on America of all time written. Phillis Wheatley ( 1754-1784 ) . the first of import African-american poet. Born in Africa. sold as a slave. she was fortunately well-treated by her Masterss and subsequently set free. Her Poems on Assorted Subjects. Religious and Moral ( 1773 ) . a aggregation of 39 verse forms. was concerned with abstract autonomy. Philip Freneau ( 1752-1832 ) . the male parent of American poesy. His poesy was a merger of neoclassicism and romanticism. He was celebrated for his verse form. â€Å"The Rising Glory of America† . collaborated with Brackenridge. He besides founded the National Gazette. a semi-weekly newspaper that became the voice of broad democracy in American political relations. Jonathan EdwardsBenjamin Franklin Text Study * Jonathan Edwards’ â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God† * The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin